Payment cards, such as credit cards and debit cards, are increasingly used in financial transactions. They are particularly widely used in consumer transactions, and are increasingly used in business-to-business transactions. Payment card transactions are simple and efficient: a buyer (referred to herein as a “client” or “cardholder”) provides a supplier (referred to herein as a “merchant”) with an account identifier associated with a payment card to purchase desired item(s). In a typical credit card transaction, the merchant verifies that the cardholder has adequate funds available against his line of credit by submitting an “authorization request” to a processor responsible for authorizing transactions involving the credit card. A positive authorization results in the generation of an authorization code and ensures that the bank that issued the credit card will pay the merchant the transaction amount. That is, for a typical credit card transaction, the transaction is authorized if the card is valid and sufficient finds or credit exist.
Many types of payment cards impose additional controls. For example, many payment cards such as “corporate cards”, “T&E cards”, “purchasing cards” are associated with corporate- and account-level controls that define where, and how, the cards may be used (these cards will be collectively referred to herein as “purchasing cards” for simplicity). For example, an organization may issue purchasing cards to some or all of its employees. To ensure that each employee's spending is appropriately controlled, each of the cards can be issued with it's own spending limits, tailored to the authority of each employee. Further controls may be imposed to control each employee's total spending by day or by month, the type of merchant each card may be used at, one or more retail spending limit(s), dollar limit(s), limits on cash advances, etc.
Generally, these card controls are enforced during the transaction authorization process. For example, when a merchant submits an authorization request for a transaction involving a purchasing card, the purchasing card account is checked to ensure that the account is valid and funded in substantially the same way as the typical credit card authorization is performed as described above. In addition, account control information is also retrieved and compared to the transaction information provided in the authorization request. If the transaction information does not comply with all of the relevant account control information, the transaction is declined.
Some account issuers provide an ability to override such a decline. Unfortunately, the typical process is cumbersome and time consuming. The cardholder generally calls a customer service number of the issuer, and is then referred to an administrator who then again contacts the issuer. The issuer reviews the cardholder's corporate- and account-level limitations and information. A note is associated with the account to allow for a manual authorization once the merchant telephones the issuer for authorization. The issuer contacts the administrator informing them to instruct the cardholder to re-present the card and to have the merchant telephone the issuer for approval. The transaction is approved if the merchant telephones the issuer and if the information provided by the merchant match the information included in the note associated with the account. This process is both cumbersome and time consuming, requiring manual intervention by the client, the issuer and the merchant, all of which can lead to dissatisfaction with the card program.
It would be desirable to provide an improved method to manually authorize transactions, particularly transactions that were previously declined.